Sunday, April 07, 2013

Taliban Slaughters Six Amereicans Including Diplomat In Afghanistan

Three members of the U.S. military, Anne Smedinghoff, a 25-year-old foreign service officer ,a U.S. civilian who worked for the U.S. Defense Department and an Afghan doctor were killed yesterday by a suicide car bombing attack while travelling to donate books to a school in the Zabul province in South Afghanistan.

Another American civilian was killed by the Taliban in a separate attack in eastern Afghanistan.

In a statement, Secretary of State John Kerry paid tribute to Anne Smedinghoff, a native of Illinois, who was killed in what he called a "despicable attack".

He said: "She tragically gave her young life working to give young Afghans the opportunity to have a better future."

Kerry described Smedinghoff as "vivacious, smart, capable, chosen often by the ambassador there to be the lead person because of her capacity."

He said "there are no words for anyone to describe the extraordinary harsh contradiction for a young 25-year-old woman, with all of her future ahead of her, believing in the possibilities of diplomacy to improve people's lives, making a difference, having an impact" to be killed, Kerry said.

Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi claimed responsibility for the attack in Zabul and said the bomber was seeking to target either a coalition convoy or the governor.

"We were waiting for one of them," Ahmadi said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "It was our good luck that both appeared at the same time."

While the Obama Administration continues to make attempts to negotiate with the Taliban, so far they've shown little interest. With President Obama's set in stone date of a pullout by 2014 and a significant drawdown of U.S. forces already scheduled for the latter part of this year, they simply see it as a case of waiting us out before they take over again.

As Taliban leader Mullah Omar once famously said in an interview after President Obama's mini surge in Afghanistan, "The Americans have the watches, but we have the time."